صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

With care I tend my weary guest,
His little fingers chill my breast;

His glossy curls, his azure wing,

Which droop with nightly showers, I wring;
His shivering limbs the embers warın,
And now, reviving from the storm,
Scarce had he felt his wonted glow,
Than swift he seiz'd his slender bow:
« I fain would know, my gentle host, »>
He cried, if this its strength has lost;

[ocr errors]

I fear, relax'd with midnight dews,

<< The strings their former aid refuse:>>
With poison tipt, his arrow flies,
Deep in my tortur'd heart it lies:
Then loud the joyous urchin laught,

[ocr errors]

My bow can still impel the shaft;

« 'Tis firmly fix'd, thy sighs reveal it,

[ocr errors]

Say, courteous host, canst thou not feel it? »

FRAGMENTS OF SCHOOL EXERCISES,

FROM THE PROMETHEUS VINCTUS OF OESCHYLUS.

GREAT Jove! to whose almighty throne
Both gods and mortals homage pay,
Ne'er may my soul thy power disown,
Thy dread behests ne'er disobey.
Oft shall the sacred victim fall
In sea-girt Ocean's mossy hall;

My voice shall raise no impious strain

'Gainst him who rules the sky and azure main.

How different now thy joyless fate,
Since first Hesione thy bride,
When plac'd aloft in godlike state,
The blushing beauty by thy side,
Thou sat'st, while reverend Ocean smil❜d,
And mirthful strains the hours beguil'd;
The Nymphs and Tritons danc'd around,

Nor yet thy doom was fix'd, nor Jove relentless frown'd.

Harrow, Dec. 1, 1804.

THE EPISODE

OF NISUS AND EURYALUS.

A PARAPHRASE FROM THE ÆNEID, LIB. IX.

NISUS, the guardian of the portal, stood,

Eager to gild his arms with hostile blood;
Well skill'd in fight, the quivering lance to wield,
Or pour his arrows thro' th' embattl'd field;
From Ida torn, he left his sylvan cave,
And sought a foreign home, a distant grave;
To watch the movements of the Daunian host,
With him, Euryalus sustains the post,

No lovelier mien adorn'd the ranks of Troy,
And beardless bloom yet grac'd the gallant boy;
Though few the seasons of his youthful life,
As yet a novice in the martial strife,
'Twas his, with beauty, valour's gifts to share,
A soul heroic, as his form was fair;

These burn with one pure flame of gen❜rous love,
In peace, in war, united still they move;

Friendship and glory form their joint reward,
And now combin'd, they hold the nightly guard.

"

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

« What God! » exclaim'd the first, « instils this fire? Or, in itself a God, what great desire?

My lab'ring soul, with anxious thought opprest,

« Abhors this station of inglorious rest;

"The love of fame with this can ill accord,

■ Be't mine, to seek for glory with my sword. "See'st thou yon camp, with torches twinkling dim, "Where drunken slumbers wrap each lazy limb?

Where confidence and ease the watch disdain, "And drowsy Silence holds her sable reign?

"Then hear my thought :-In deep and sullen grief, . Our troops and leaders mourn their absent chief; Now could the gifts and promis'd prize be thine, (The deed, the danger, and the fame be mine;) "Were this decreed ;-beneath yon rising mound, Methinks, an easy path, perchance, were found, "Which past, I speed my way to Pallas' walls, And lead Eneas from Evander's halls. » With equal ardour fired, and warlike joy, His glowing friend address'd the Dardan boy : These deeds, my Nisus, shalt thou dare alone? «Must all the fame, the peril, be thine own? "Am I by thee despis'd, and left afar,

« As one unfit to share the toils of war?

« Not thus, his son, the
the great Opheltes taught,
«Not thus, my Sire, in Argive combats fought;
«Not thus, when llion fell by heavenly hate,

« I track'd Æneas through the walks of fate;
"Thou know'st my deeds, my breast devoid of fear,
"And hostile life-drops dim my gory spear;

«Here is a soul with hope immortal burns,

« And life, ignoble life, for Glory spurns;

K

Fame, fame, is cheaply earn'd by fleeting breath, «The price of honour is the sleep of death. » Then Nisus,«Calm thy bosom's fond alarms, Thy heart beats fiercely to the din of arms; «More dear thy worth and valour than my own, « I swear by him who fills Olympus' throne! So may I triumph, as I speak the truth, «And clasp again the comrade of my youth.

་་

But should I fall, and he who dares advance

Through hostile legions, must abide by chance; "If some Rutulian arm, with adverse blow,

Should lay the friend who ever lov'd thee low;
Live thou, such beauties I would fain

[ocr errors]

preserve, Thy budding years a lengthen'd term deserve; When humbled in the dust, let some one be, « Whose gentle eyes will shed one tear for me; « Whose manly arm may snatch me back by force, « Or wealth redeem from foes my captive corse: «Or, if my docsi-

་་

"

[ocr errors]

«

[ocr errors]

uny wese last deny,

If, in the spoiler's power, my ashes lie;
Thy pious care may raise a simple tomb,

To mark thy love, and signalize my doom.

Why should thy doating, wretched mother weep
Her only boy, reclin'd in endless sleep?

Who, for thy sake, the tempest's fury dar'd,

Who, for thy sake, war's deadly peril shar'd;

Who brav'd what woman never brav'd before,
And left her native for the Latian shore. »

« In vain you damp the ardour of my soul, »>
Reply'd Eurialas, « it scorns controul;

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Hence, let us haste, their brother guards arose, Reus'd by their call, nor court again repose;

[ocr errors]

The pair, buoy'd up on Hope's exulting wing,
Their stations leave, and speed to seek the king.
Now, o'er the earth a solemn stillness ran,
And lull'd alike the cares of brute and man;
Save where the Dardan leaders nightly hold
Alternate converse, and their plans unfold;
On one great point the council are agreed,
An instant message to their prince decreed;
Each lean'd upon the lance, he well could wield,
And pois'd, with easy arm, his ancient shield;
When Nisus and his friend their leave request
To offer something to their high behest.
With anxious tremors, yet unaw'd by fear,
The faithful pair before the throne appear;
Julus greets them; at his kind command,
The elder first address'd the hoary band.

With patience,» thus Hyrtacides began,

« Attend, nor judge, from youth, our humble plan; "Where yonder beacons half expiring beam,

<< Our slumbering foes of future conquest dream,

« Nor heed, that we a secret path have trac'd,

[ocr errors]

Between the Ocean, and the portal plac'd :

Beneath the covert of the blackening smoke,

<< Whose shade, securely, our design will cloak. If you, ye Chiefs, and Fortune will allow,

« We'll bend our course to yonder mountain's brow, « Where Pallas' walls, at distance, meet the sight, « Seen o'er the glade, when not obscur❜d by night; . Then shall Æneas in his pride return,

« While hostile matrons raise their offspring's urn; « And Latian spoils, and purpl'd heaps of dead,

[ocr errors][merged small]
« السابقةمتابعة »